Giants win 5-3, try to avoid going down in history with the pathetic 1998 Marlins

Hunter Pence is congratulated by third base coach Tim Flannery after hitting a two-run home run. (Jack Dempsey/AP)

DENVER – The Giants made history last year when winning the World Series. If they don’t improve in the standings, they’ll make history again for all the wrong reasons.

They could become just the second team since the World Series was created to follow a championship with a last-place finish. The only team to finish last a year after winning a World Series was the 1998 Marlins, and those shameful Marlins didn’t even try, instead engaging in a legendary fire sale and losing 108 games after winning it all in 1997.

The Giants have 30 games to pull themselves from the cellar.

They’re not far away. With Tuesday night’s 5-3 victory over the Rockies, the Giants moved two games behind third-place Colorado in the National League West. The Padres were in fourth with their game against Arizona in progress late in the evening.

“I don’t think the goal is, ‘Let’s finish out of the basement,’ ” said Hunter Pence, who hit the majors’ longest home run of the season on Tuesday. “My spiel right now is to play each game like a playoff game.”

Minus the pregame speeches and sunflower-seed tossing, which became Pence rituals last October. They’ve been replaced by Pence doing the salsa with Pablo Sandoval, suddenly the new ritual.

“Putting the results aside, my goal is to be completely determined and have completely max effort with my concentration,” Pence said. “That’s what I want to heighten. If you treat it that way, you can walk away whether you get the results or not.”

Pence has had a memorable series. One day after he ran into the outfield wall, he hit a ball over it. Way over it. His first-inning home run cleared the left-field bleachers and was estimated by ESPN’s tracking folks at 476 foot, a foot further than the previous estimated high, belonging to the Angels’ Mark Trumbo and Cubs’ Andy Rizzo.

“All of my hits combined probably weren’t hit as hard as his,” said Brandon Belt, who went 4-for-5.

Pence and Sandoval hit first-inning home runs, the first time all season Giants hitters homered in consecutive at-bats. When Pence was asked about his homer, he preferred to stress the contributions of Belt, Sandoval and Yusmeiro Petit, who surrendered two runs in six innings for his first win since 2009, when he was a Diamondback and beat the Giants 11-0.

“It’s been disappointing with what’s happened in the standings,” Pence said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t turn it around and continue to play the way we’re capable of. The effort and enthusiasm have been tremendous lately. That’s the most important thing, to black out the standings and play every game like it’s a playoff game.”

And to salsa with Sandoval.

“Before every game. That’s our new handshake,” Pence said. “Pablo was teaching me to salsa in the batting cage, and we decided to add it to our handshake because the old one wasn’t working. This one’s been working better.”